ABC Dance Moves

The other night while I was cooking dinner, Landon was in the mood to pull all of the pots and pans out of the cabinets. Phillip tried to entice Landon into the living room by turning on his i-pod, and it worked! We caught this video of the little man showing off a bit...he was trying to recreate for his Dad some dance moves that he did earlier in the day. (In case you're wondering, he did a Gregory Hines style tap and stomp number!)

He did a little warm-up dance to the ABC song, but when it came to the big dance reveal, Landon was a little shy; he changed his mind about it once he got to the middle of the room, and started shaking his head "no"!

Pancake Party!

Some of our friends are in the process of adopting a baby girl, and their Sunday School class hosted a pancake breakfast fundraiser for them this morning (we visit the same church). We thought we would support our friends, and have breakfast to boot, but we weren't prepared for how much FUN Landon would have!

The breakfast was in the church fellowship hall, with plenty of space for the 15-20 kids in attendance to run around. It was basically the trifecta for Landon: food, running around with wild abandon, and lots of girls to dote on him!

Landon was the youngest kid participating in the festivities, but that didn't stop him from pulling out a chair and trying to eat someone's breakfast Goldilocks-style, entertaining five three-year old girls (simultaneously) with his baby chatter, playing Red Light-Green Light, Red Rover and Simon Says, and enticing the "big kids" to pick him and carry him around so he could see the action.

To say he had a good time would be an understatement. Phillip and I loved seeing him work the room...it was hilarious.

When he was around adults he would nod his head in agreement after they made their point, and when he was around the kids, he laughed contagiously, or looked straight at them and nodded his head until they picked him up and carried him around! Phillip and I think that he was telepathically saying "yep, come on, you know you want to pick me up" :)

Fetch Lives

Today Landon and I played fetch. Nope, that's not a typo. I wish I could say that we played catch, but it just wasn't the case! Every time I threw the football to Landon, he picked it up, put it in his mouth, ran or crawled over to me, and then shook his head back and forth while I gently tried to pry the football out of his teeth!

He's getting in two bottom teeth right now; that's his story and he's sticking to it!

Peanut Butter Super Glue

Tonight I made chicken curry for dinner, a little hot for Landon, so he enjoyed a pb&j, some honeydew, and a little bit of naan and hummus. He didn't want to be totally left out from our Indian dinner I suppose!

After he finished his sandwich, Phillip and I silently said a prayer of thanks that tonight is bath night. It's so pitiful really, but Landon's eczema means that he only gets to bathe weekly (barring any crazy messes) - and the little one really loves a warm bath.

But Landon wasn't finished with his pb&j yet. He had asked to play with the paper plate on which I delivered his sandwich, so he was playing peek-a-boo with us behind the plate. At one point, he realized that the residual peanut butter and jam smeared all over his face could act as "glue" to keep the plate over his face!

You haven't seen such excitement. Peek-a-boo hands-free is so much better! Seeing those little chubby hands waving on either side of the paper plate was one of the cutest things Landon had done since...umm, lunchtime! Yep, this one always keeps us laughing.

Sweet Sounds

Nothing melts my heart more than hearing Landon talk. It is SO FUN now that he is getting older, and we can really have a conversation with him. Sometimes we say something, and he will do just what we talked about (like "why don't we put on our shoes to go outside?"). Sometimes he will nod his head "yes" or "no", and sometimes he will answer!

Today he curled up to his Dad on the couch, and Phillip said, "hey sweet boy". Landon responded back, "hey deddy" in just about the cutest voice you have ever heard. I wish you could have heard the way Landon pronounced Daddy; so sweetly, with an 'e' instead of an 'a'...

Bashful...Or, Not

Today the whole family headed to our neighborhood park for some fresh air. While we were there, a grandmother commented to Landon that he had the most beautiful blue eyes.

Like any self-respecting 16 month-old, he immediately looked upwards, tilted his head a bit, and started blinking in an exaggerated fashion...his version of eye-lash batting, but ever-so-much-more charming.

Umm yeah, totally not bashful.

Fireman Sam

We have always had a pretty conservative view towards babies watching tv, and haven't allowed Landon to watch very much at all. Until a few weeks ago. From birth to 15 months old, Landon probably watched his Baby Einstein Beethoven video about ten times total. But in the last few weeks, the combination of 20 degree temperatures, cabin fever, and in some cases unfortunately, very real fevers, has led us to relax our stance a bit.

With Phillip home on vacation, us snowed in from time to time, and no Little Gym classes over the holiday, we have had a few long days. Enter PBS's "Fireman Sam" show for preschoolers. Would you like to hear the opening song? Phillip and I can both sing it forwards and backwards!

Each show is only 10 minutes, but Landon has very happily settled into a daily schedule of watching a show or two in that witching hour between dinner and bed. Of course, he will grab one of our hands, take us over to the remote, then point to the tv a few other times during the day as well. Think this one is going to be hard to take away after Christmas break is over!

Up until today, Phillip and I thought that Landon just enjoyed the colors and the music. Turns out that the little fella has been following the plot! Today he surprised us both by bursting into his infectious giggles during two different scenes, both of them "uh-oh oops" moments in the show. We felt like we were watching a sitcom with another adult! Think we will hold off on the sitcoms for awhile though :)